Cooley Dickinson VNA & Hospice: The Journey Home

Customers’ Choice Program Helps the Journey Home

The Journey Home singers file quietly into a home and are led to the living room, where a hospice care patient lies, surrounded by family and friends. The singers briefly introduce themselves, then the four-part a cappella group begins to sing.

“Music tends to reduce anxiety,” says Priscilla Ross, executive director of Cooley Dickinson VNA & Hospice, noting that the Journey Home program is very popular. “We receive many letters from families and patients thanking us for the music we provide. It’s a service that is hugely popular.”

Priscilla was thrilled to receive for the first time last spring one of our Customers’ Choice Community Grants, noting then that she would use the $1,287 to support the music program and also fund the services of a harp player and reiki practitioner.

“The grant helped fund services that are not covered by insurance,” she says. “That includes bedside care that is innovative and relaxing for both the patient and family members. These are all programs that were in great need of this help.”

Knowing that customers placed votes for her nonprofit was also heartwarming to Priscilla. “It’s good to see that people like what we do and want to support it,” she said.

The Journey Home singers, made up of roughly 30 volunteers, have been faithfully bringing songs of peace and comfort to hospice and hospital patients since 2011. This service, as well as the harp music, began with a private grant, but that money has since been expended.

Thanks to our award, however, these services continued this year. “What Florence Bank does for our community is so unique and valuable,” Priscilla says.

As he raised a glass to lead all recipients in a toast, our President and CEO John F. Heaps Jr. said, “We started 16 years ago with an idea to ask our customers to vote for a worthy organization to receive funds. Here’s to the $1 million mark. And here’s to you, for making our communities special with your contributions every day.”